Road Repairs in 1891

“Jos. Dixon” was listed twice in this report on expenditures for road repairs in 1891. I am actually impressed with the record-keeping and reporting of all county expenditures each year in Edwards County. The county often brags in the newspaper that they had never experienced a financial scandal in it’s short history.

I am wondering at this stage whether this is work done by Joe (Sr.) or Joe (Jr.) as Junior was of the age to do such work, using his father’s equipment. The two amounts listed are among the higher on the page.

At one time, Joe (Sr.) was a road supervisor. A successor in that position made a formal request, for 50% of the funds to do a major upgrade to the Albion to Grayville road near Dixon property. The request was granted. This shows that the precinct Road Supervisor, an elected official, did have the ability to spend funds on minor projects and to request additional funds for major projects to match those locally generated. Seems like a good plan to me.

By the way, they are starting to “macadamize” the streets around the courthouse in downtown Albion during this period. This is the first road paving mentioned. Local store owners sometimes pay to have the pavement extended all the way to the sidewalk in front of their store. Otherwise, the paving only happens in the middle of the street.

Alachua County made a major improvement in our area here outside of Gainesville a few years ago. They used a similar process of layering crushed stone and oil to pave a road from our neighborhood to a nearby state highway leading into town.